AthenaHQ vs Gumshoe (2026): which should you pick?
As of Oct 23, 2026, AthenaHQ grades higher than Gumshoe: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 · graded Oct 23, 2026 by ToolGPA
AthenaHQ grades higher on features and platforms. Gumshoe grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
AthenaHQ
Credit-based AI search tracking with content optimization agents
Gumshoe
AI visibility audits that ask questions as your buyer personas
Which one is for you
Pick AthenaHQ if
- Fits if you want to look at real AI answers about your brand before paying anything
- Works for shops checking their products in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini shopping results
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you outgrow the free credits, as the next step is $245 a month on yearly billing
- Tight if you track lots of prompts every day, because every answer spends a credit
- Skip it if you need Claude, AI Mode or Grok on the free plan, as they start on Starter
- Watch out: the API and extra credits on Starter are add-ons priced only on request
- Not for you if you need SSO, audit logs or multi-region tracking without an Enterprise contract
Pick Gumshoe if
- Fits if you sell to several kinds of buyer and want AI results split by each one
- Works for teams that want to see a sample audit of their brand before paying
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you have several product lines, as each one is its own $99 project
- Skip it if you want to see which sites AI cites or how it describes you, as those audits are on Pro at $299
- Not for you if you want an API, integrations or exports into your own reports, as none are listed
- Watch out: both plans bill monthly with no yearly option listed, and many brands or clients need a sales quote
- Tight if you want daily numbers on Starter, which gets weekly snapshots and one Visibility Audit a month
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAAthenaHQFair | 2.0GPAGumshoeFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DStarter is $245 a month billed annually, $295 monthly, for 3,600 credits. That sits in this category's dearest tenth, which starts at $129, and the API and extra credits are add-ons priced only on request. | CStarter is $99 a month per project, billed monthly, with unlimited seats. That's at the dearer quarter of this category, and a project is one product line, so three lines means three plans. Citations and sentiment need Pro at $299. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan, Essential, with 300 credits on ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot and unlimited users. But one credit is one AI answer, so 10 prompts on 5 models spend 50 credits a run. You'll hit the wall fast. | COne free sample audit with no card: 4 personas, 5 prompts each, on 4 models, and it doesn't expire. It's a one-time look, though. Tracking over time is paid. |
| Features | BUp to 11 models on Starter, Claude, AI Mode and Grok among them, with competitor benchmarks, sentiment and source insights. It adds an optimization agent, AI shopping results and robots.txt and llms.txt controls. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. | CPersona-based prompts, a leaderboard against up to 30 rivals, 12 models tracked with 6 per audit, and AI readability checks per page. The listing's own gap: Starter has only the Visibility and Technical Audits, so sentiment, citations and content need Pro. |
| Ease of use | CNo rating on record. Credits take some working out: there's a whole calculator just for estimating how prompts, locations, models and cadence add up. | CNo rating on record. It builds the personas and their questions for you, and there are still audits to run and read. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, with no desktop or phone app. It links to Google Analytics, Search Console, WordPress, Shopify and Webflow, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude over MCP. The API is a paid add-on. | CWeb only, with no integrations or API listed. |
| Best for | a free start on credit-based AI answer tracking | AI visibility broken down by buyer persona |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: AthenaHQ and Gumshoe. How we grade
Price against what you get
AthenaHQ starts at $245 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Gumshoe starts at $99 a month and scores 2.0.
AthenaHQ scores higher, and starts $146 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI search visibility tools on the chart, 1 scores higher than AthenaHQ for less, and 80 score higher than Gumshoe for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- AthenaHQ also covers AI agents.
- Gumshoe also covers reports.
At a glance
| AthenaHQ | Gumshoe | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly) | $99 per project / month, billed monthly |
| Free plan | Essential plan: $25 of credit (300 credits, 1 credit = 1 AI response) across ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot, with unlimited users. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | One free sample audit: 4 personas, 5 prompts each, 4 models; no card, does not expire |
| Web | ||
| Made by | AthenaHQ | Gumshoe AI |
| Price read from | athenahq.ai | gumshoe.ai |
| Checked | Oct 23, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
AthenaHQ
- Everything runs on credits: 3,600 a month on Starter. A free credit calculator helps estimate use by prompts, locations, models and cadence.
- API access and extra credits on Starter are paid add-ons whose prices are given only on request.
- The free Essential plan covers 5 models; Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral need Starter.
- SSO, audit logs, multi-region tracking and BI dashboards come only with Enterprise.
Gumshoe
- Prices are per project, so a brand tracking three product lines pays for three plans.
- Starter has only the Visibility and Technical Audits; sentiment, citation and content audits need Pro.
- Both plans bill monthly with no annual option listed; many brands or clients need a sales quote.
- There is no free plan, only a one-time sample audit; a paid plan is needed for tracking over time.
Key features
AthenaHQ
- AI answer monitoring
- Analyzes prompts and responses for brand mentions, competitor benchmarking and real-time sentiment across up to 11 models on Starter.
- Sources and citation intelligence
- Shows which sources AI answers draw on and where competitors are cited instead of you.
- Content optimization agent
- Recommends on-page and off-page actions and rewrites content against brand guidelines; drafts can be published to WordPress, Shopify and other CMSs.
- Shopping insights
- Shows how a site's products appear in AI shopping results in ChatGPT, AI Mode and Gemini carousels, with position and competitor pricing.
- AI crawler controls
- Manages AI crawler access through a generated robots.txt and llms.txt.
- MCP and analytics connections
- Connects Google Analytics and Search Console to tie AI visibility to traffic, and works inside ChatGPT or Claude through MCP.
Gumshoe
- Persona-based prompts
- Builds buyer personas for your market and the prompts each would ask, so results show how answers change with who is asking.
- Visibility Audit
- Brand leaderboard, visibility by persona, topic and model, and up to 30 competitors side by side, with change since the last audit.
- Model coverage
- Each audit uses 6 models drawn from 12 tracked, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, DeepSeek, Grok and Google AI Overviews.
- Sentiment and Citation Audits
- On Pro: how models describe your brand, and which domains they cite when answering questions in your category.
- Technical and Content Audits
- Scores each page on how readable it is to AI, flagging schema, JSON-LD, structure and metadata, and finds content gaps (Content Audit on Pro).
Plans
AthenaHQ
Essential$0
300 credits on 5 models, unlimited users, prompt and source analysis, content recommendations and the Athena AI agent.
Starter$245
per month for 3,600 credits, billed annually ($295 monthly)
11 models including Claude, AI Mode, Grok, DeepSeek, Meta AI and Mistral; unlimited topics, prompts and competitors, CSV export and the optimization agent.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and websites, API access, knowledge base and claim review, multi-region tracking, BI dashboards, SAML SSO, audit logs and a 2-hour SLA.
Gumshoe
Starter$99
per project / month, billed monthly
A monthly Visibility Audit, weekly snapshot audits, 10 Technical Audit runs and 3 content generation runs. Unlimited seats.
Pro$299
per project / month, billed monthly
Adds the Sentiment, Citation and Content Audits, daily snapshots, 50 Technical Audit runs and 10 content generation runs.
Ways to pay less
AthenaHQ
- Annual discount
17% off with annual billing
AthenaHQ's plans page takes 17% off for annual billing, described as two months free: Starter is $245 a month instead of $295.
Gumshoe
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, AthenaHQ or Gumshoe?
As of Oct 23, 2026, Gumshoe is cheaper to start with: $99 a month, against $245 a month for AthenaHQ. AthenaHQ starts at $245 per month, billed annually ($295 billed monthly), and Gumshoe starts at $99 per project / month, billed monthly.
Which has a free plan, AthenaHQ or Gumshoe?
As of Oct 23, 2026, only AthenaHQ has a free plan. Gumshoe does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.